A bit of perspective.
Late last week, we were preparing to work on our lead in pieces for the
front page. At the time, the Linux business market was ending what looked
like a rather ugly week. Caldera's future
looked bleak, according to a report from C|Net's News.com, based on the
Linux distributors recent quarterly filings.

In the third quarter ended July 31, Caldera had $18.9 million in
revenue. In the fourth quarter, the company expects revenue of $15
million to $20 million and an operating loss of $20 million to $24
million, including restructuring charges.

Even more scary were the layoffs from Lineo and closing of Great
Bridge. Lineo announced that it was
restructuring around its core embedded platform business. About 60
employees are to lose their jobs and another 100 will be "spun out" as
Lineo divests itself of many of the acquisitions it has made over the
last couple of years. The leaner, meaner Lineo will be left with about
110 people. Great Bridge had even less luck, announcing they would be
closing their doors after being unable to find a suitable investor.

Great Bridge LLC announced today that it has ceased business
operations. Great Bridge, founded in May 2000 by Norfolk, Virginia-based
media conglomerate Landmark Communications, Inc., initiated a search for
additional investors or an acquirer in July of this year. This search did
not generate a qualified investor or acquirer, and Great Bridge's board
decided to close the business.

With the Linux world crumbling around us, due mostly to a difficult
economic condition and companies finding it difficult to make business
plans function, we began to wonder just what could make it worse.

Yet now, with life in a very new perspective, business problems just don't
seem to be worth the worry. New businesses will arise. Old ones survive.
For most of us, we're okay. Life has changed. But it's still the same
too. Our spirit is unbroken. Tomorrow, we pick up the pieces. And then
we'll build again.

If you thought the DMCA was bad... just wait until the SSSCA takes
effect. The Security Systems
Standards and Certification Act is an impressive bit of big-brotherism
currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate. The core of this
proposed law is this text:

It is unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide
or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device that does
not include and utilize certified security technologies that adhere
to the security systems standards adopted under section 104.

The definition of a "digital device" is just as broad as it sounds -
essentially, anything - hardware or software - that is capable of moving
and storing bits.

In particular, a computer running Linux is certainly such a digital device,
as is Linux itself or any of a number of other free programs. The
"security standards" mentioned are to be developed in the future; one can,
without too much trouble, imagine that these standards to not specify
"source available so that the security systems can be changed."

In other words, this is a law that would ban free software. No
source-available system will ever be able to conform to the security
standards that the industry will come up with; these people are not
interested in something that can be turned off. The outlawing of free
software seems outlandish, to say the least, but remember that we are
dealing with the people who are trying to put Dmitry Sklyarov in jail for
25 years.

This law will probably not pass in this form. It bears careful watching,
however. It could emerge, after a high-profile "compromise," as something
just as nasty with bipartisan support. It could really happen here.

Interview: Lawrence Lessig.
LWN's Dennis Tenney had the opportunity to interview
Lawrence Lessig at LinuxWorld. The discussion covered the Sklyarov
case, what the government might do next in support of the DMCA, what
could happen in the supreme court, and more. "I think that things
have gone pretty well up to this moment. The real fear is that the next
layer of struggle, at the network layer, will have a profound tilting
effect away from open source projects. If that is true then open source
won't continue to provide an opportunity to check improper power."